Salvador Dali

About me:

My full name is Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dali I Domenech. I was born at 8:45 on the morning of May 11, 1904 in the small agricultural town of Figueres, Spain. Figueres is located in the foothills of the Pyrenees, only sixteen miles from the French border in the principality of Catalonia. I spent his boyhood in Figueres and at my family's summer home in the coastal fishing village of Cadaques where my parents built my first studio. I attended the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid. Early recognition of my talent came with my first one-man show in Barcelona in 1925. I became internationally known when three of my paintings, including The Basket of Bread, were shown in the third annual Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh in 1928. The following year, I held my first one-man show in Paris. I also joined the surrealists, led by former Dadaist Andre Breton. That year, I met Gala Eluard when she visited me in Cadaques with her husband, poet Paul Eluard. She became my lover, muse, business manager, and chief inspiration. I soon became a leader of the Surrealist Movement. My painting, The Persistence of Memory, with the soft or melting watches is still one of the best-known surrealist works. But as the war approached,I clashed with the Surrealists and was "expelled" from the surrealist group during a "trial" in 1934. I did however, exhibit works in international surrealist exhibitions throughout the decade but by 1940, I was moving into a new type of painting with a preoccupation with science and religion. Gala and I escaped from Europe during World War II, spending 1940-48 in the United States. These were very important years for me. The Museum of Modern Art in New York gave my first major retrospective exhibit in 1941. This was followed in 1942 by the publication of my autobiography, The Secret Life of Salvador Dali. As I moved away from Surrealism and into his classic period, I began a series of 19 large canvases, many concerning scientific, historical or religious themes. Among the best known of these works are The Hallucinogenic Toreador, and The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in the museum's collection, and The Sacrament of the Last Supper in the collection of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. In 1974, I opened the Teatro Museo in Figueres, Spain. This was followed by retrospectives in Paris and London at the end of the decade. As an artist, I not limited to a particular style or media. The body of my work, from early impressionist paintings through my transitional surrealist works, and into my classical period, reveals a constantly growing and evolving artist. work in all media, creating for the world, a wealth of oils, watercolors, drawings, graphics, and sculptures, films, photographs, performance pieces, jewels and objects of all descriptions.